After nearly nine years of refurbishing work, China’s first aircraft carrier — a platform that could add to Taiwan’s defense concerns — could soon embark on its maiden voyage, Chinese media reported last week.
Work on the Varyag, a refurbished carrier purchased from Ukraine in 1998 for about US$20 million, was near completion and the hull was being painted in the standard Chinese naval color, a Web site associated with the state-run People’s Daily newspaper reported last Wednesday.
Seen as one of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) last accomplishments before he steps down next year, the aircraft carrier could take to sea as early as July 1, reports said.
File Photo: Lo Tien-bin, Taipei Times
Expected to be renamed “Shi Lang,” after the Qing Dynasty admiral who conquered what is now known as Taiwan in 1681, the carrier has been undergoing modernization work at the port of Dalian since 2002. Although the hull was built in 1988 by the former Soviet Union, the vessel acquired by China did not include the electronic circuits, radars, antennas, engines or other devices.
A report by UK-based Jane’s Defence Weekly on Friday said the carrier would come equipped with phased array radars and surface-to-air missiles, making it a more independent platform than its US equivalent, which is dependent on Aegis-type guided missile cruisers for protection.
Commenting on the reports, Lan Ning-li (蘭寧利), a retired vice admiral in the Republic of China Navy, told the Central News Agency last week that after being assigned to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy fleet in the South China Sea fleet, the carrier would be in a position to move in areas surrounding southern and eastern Taiwan, a scenario that would pose “a certain threat” to the country.
Even if Taiwanese vessels could block entry from the north and south sides of the Taiwan Strait, the “Shi Lang” would still allow China to expand its naval activities eastward into the Pacific, he said.
“That will make Taiwan vulnerable to enemy attacks at sea from both front and rear,” Lan said.
Despite reports that refurbishing work had entered its final phase, many of the sophisticated electronics on the carrier likely had yet to be installed, Lan said.
A picture provided by the People’s Daily showed the large bridge, minus the phased array radar, nearing completion.
The 302m long and 70.5m wide carrier, which comes with a loaded displacement of 67,000 tonnes and a speed of between 29 knots and 31 knots, can host as many as 50 aircraft of various types — possibly including Russian-made SU-33 and carrier-modified, Chinese-made J-10, as well as anti-submarine -helicopters and early-warning helicopters.
As Chinese pilots have no experience taking off from and landing aircraft on carriers, it could be a while before the impact on regional security of the deployment of the “Shi Lang” is truly felt.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS